The Full Moon Probably Won't Make You Give Birth

The Full Moon Probably Won't Make You Give Birth

If you believe old wives tales, then the full moon sure has a big effect on your body. Folklore tells us that the full moon correlates to more emergency room visits, poorer mental health, a change in menstrual cycle, and sleep deprivation, among other phenomenon.

So, now that we've got that out of the way, we bet you're wondering why more babies are born so early in the morning. Rest assured, there isn't anything magical about that, either.

Zan Armstrong, the data visualization engineer who gathered these statistics, said that the spike makes a lot of sense when you break the data down into the types of births, like c-sections, induced births, and natural births.

Scheduled c-sections account for the big spike at 8 a.m., since doctors plan for births like these during daytime hours. There's another spike of c-sections around noon, according to the data, and a big drop later in the day and into the night.

It makes sense — if doctors are going to schedule a birth, then of course they would do it during work hours and leave the nights to emergency c-sections and natural births (none of which are influenced by the moon).

Welcome to Mothership: Parenting stories you actually want to read, whether you're thinking about or passing on kids, from egg-freezing to taking home baby and beyond. Because motherhood is a big if — not when — and it's time we talked about it that way.